Where we would all like to be

Take off the blinders

All I hear around me is contempt for a government that has taken us to the edge of a treacherous abyss, teetering perilously close to an impending economic collapse and yet little in response as to what these naysayers are going to do about it. I’ve listened to countless complaints about how “they” have screwed us again (pick a side) and when asked about what they shall do as a result I am met with shrugs of capitulation. No one I have spoken to has any clue as to what is going on. They all just want to want to play the blame game, have someone else solve it, and are willing to do nothing about it themselves. It does seem overwhelming to many as to what they can do. And yes, it is definitely true that both sides share in the blame. They are both guilty as sin. But the time to point fingers is over, and the time to take action is now.

It was almost as if both parties were reenacting one of those 1950’s cinematic tough guy “chicken” contests where they raced their cars toward the edge of a cliff, daring the other side to jump out of their car first before it plummets over the side. Unfortunately for us, both sides took it too far, and the two cars that ended up careening over the side of the cliff crashing in a fiery heap at the bottom of the ravine is our country’s economy. But they are not the true culprits in my mind. We are. We are the fans cheering them on, hyping them up, standing on the sidelines doing nothing, waiting, and wanting to see something happen. Instead of walking over and taking the “keys” from the two sides and not allowing them to play this game of chicken with our “cars.”

You can’t say you care about what happens and then in the same breath tell me that is the reason why you don’t vote. I can’t believe how stupid everyone is in this country. It used to be a privilege to be able to vote. People are fighting and dying literally all over the world to have the opportunity to vote. And Americans can’t be bothered to go to the polls and cast their ballot because they are so upset that the system doesn’t work, that their plan on fixing it is to do nothing. And when you mention to them the inherent flaws in their faulty reasoning, you are met with silenced mouth agape wide-eyed staring followed by empty blinks. I can’t believe this is the case. We have a crisis on our hands. We are no longer democrats and republicans, tree huggers and tea baggers, right and left. We need to put those fallacies away and polarize as a group of people that want to save this country. We are after all Americans. Or have we forgotten what that means?

Well to me it means that we are willing to do whatever it takes to survive and thrive, because at the end of the day we have an opportunity to make anything we want of ourselves. But laziness, self-entitlement, and a blatant disregard for our political freedoms have made us lose sight of the rights that our ancestors, recent I might add, had fought and died to receive. It is time that we take back our country. There is no quick fix. If we attempt to do that instead of looking for one that will carry us into the future, we will ultimately destroy ourselves. Blame Bush, blame Obama, blame Congress, but realize the longer we play the blame game the longer our country plummets toward demise. Put the labels away for 5 minutes and proudly unite under the banner of nationalism. We are Americans. Our fight is not against each other. If we don’t heal now as a country, we will die apart as individuals.